“Because I have absolutely no choice, Sally.” Too much revealing a motion gripped through my tone.

  Her brow crumpled. “Chance or choice?”

  I scrunched my lips together. Both. I couldn’t admit the truth.

  I wanted to give in to my attraction for William so much.

  I wanted to stoke it until it turned into something, just to see how brightly it could burn.

  But I couldn’t do that. Do that, and I’d do my enemy’s work for them. Now I knew Matthew wanted William to turn, I….

  With a frown, Sally sat back on her swing. She twisted back and forth, planting one foot against the icy pine bark beneath and shimmying. She didn’t spill a single drop of coffee. She had perfect poise. And perfect looks. And great clothes. And—

  I didn’t care about that, and I wondered if William didn’t too.

  “He likes you, Lillian. I’ve seen it in the photos. You might not think I have that skill,” she assessed the horizon with a darting gaze like a scientist, “but I do. With one glimpse of a pic, even though I’m not magical, I can tell if a guy wants a girl. And William wants you. So what’s the problem?”

  I crumpled forward. I didn’t want to be emotional. Tears still rolled down my cheek.

  “Hey, kid, what’s the matter? Did something happen?”

  I turned to her. “Just got dust in my eye, that’s all.” To be fair, I had all sorts of dust in my eye from the riot. I rubbed at it. I crammed two more biscuits in my mouth, one after the other. If I couldn’t have William, I could drown my sorrows in sugar, right?

  Sally didn’t push. She plucked her phone from her pocket, likely giving me time to process my emotions. She would not believe the lie about dust in my eye. She was the kind of friend to wait for me to come to her, though.

  She started scrolling through things. I wanted to lean over and check it wasn’t celebrity mags. I went red in the cheeks just thinking about that. What would the paparazzi say? What would the captions read? The world’s hottest vampire walks out with the world’s messiest Enforcement Officer? They can’t possibly be together because it’s unnatural, because it’s—

  Sally gasped and dropped her coffee. Uncharacteristic, considering her usual grace. It splashed open, the cup crumpling on its side. Coffee pooled all over her expensive Jimmy Choos. She lurched up. “God. It happened again.”

  My Enforcement Officer senses snapped me to her side faster than a jet through the sky.

  I plucked her phone from her.

  She took another step back. “Another poisoning.”

  “Poisoning?”

  “Like hell I have to tell you. You probably deal with it.” She thrust her thumb into her mouth. “Someone else’s been given C9R. You remember Jacqueline from ninth-grade?”

  “Yeah, I remember Jacqueline.” I handed the phone back. I couldn’t concentrate long enough to read. Sally was about to tell me, anyway.

  “Jacqueline mercilessly bullied you for not having magic.”

  “Yeah. Now she’s a powerful witch working for the biggest coven in town. I hear that she’s even going to run for the Senate.”

  “Not anymore. She took C9R. Sorry, as if Jacqueline would ever voluntarily do that. Someone force-fed it to her, and now she’s lost her magic. The press is split, some thinking she couldn’t take the pressure and she just dosed herself.”

  I flopped a hand on my head and closed my eyes. “She was given it.”

  “How do you know?” Sally leaned forward with a flickering look that said she would keep my confidence if she threw me a tasty scrap of gossip.

  I’d learned my lesson with sharing Enforcement Office secrets. I’d spilled pretty much all of them around Kai. I could not involve Sally, though.

  I smiled. “Jacqueline would never let go of her power. She would do anything and crush anyone before she gave up her force.”

  Sally conceded my point. Then worry enshrouded her face. She stared up at the clear sky, lips twitching, then glanced at her coffee. She grabbed a tissue from her sleek black clutch and cleaned her shoes. “Where is this gonna go, exactly?” she asked in a tight tone desperately trying to be casual.

  I watched her out of the corner of my eye as a sharp wind whistled through the playground trees. It rattled through the empty oak branches and yanked some pine needles off the spruces.

  “What’s gonna happen next?” She leaned forward, clutching her bag like a child. She wasn’t that into her possessions. Just needed something to hug.

  I faced my friend. Could I tell her the truth? No. I wouldn’t burst her bubble. I liked our chats – though I was often too scared to have them these days. Sally was normal. She was a window back into my old life.

  I wanted to protect that like somebody grabbing their old dollhouse and hiding it in the attic where no one could touch it.

  “Look, Sally, there’s always a bit of danger in a city like this.”

  She watched me with careful eyes. “A bit?”

  I shrugged. I was surprised it was easy.

  Was I ignoring the White Knight’s epic threat? No. I was just putting it in context. A hundred years ago, the magical world had flipped on its head.

  We’d had other incidents since. Magic equals chaos. Nothing would ever be truly peaceful. But we’d survive as long as the right people rose to the occasion. And speaking of rising, my phone rang.

  I pulled it from my pocket, slid off the swing, and walked to one of the pine trees, pressing my back against the rough wood. “What is it?”

  I knew who it was. Mirabella. I never said her name in public. “Argyle has made you some kind of weird complex cake. You need to come home and tell him it’s perfect. You better tell him it’s perfect. He’s been swearing in the kitchen for eight hours. Eight.”

  I crumpled. “Eight hours?”

  She laughed. “I also need to discuss some of the stuff from the USB with you.” Her voice dropped.

  I nodded hard like a soldier who was handed their next mission. “Got it. I’m on my way.”

  I looked at Sally.

  She stood, grabbed her cup, and threw it in the bin. “That’s you, ha?”

  I nodded. “Duty calls.”

  She swung to my side and patted my shoulder. “You know, you could have a life that revolved around more than work and friends.”

  I frowned, confused. My tired brain could not figure out what she was saying. “Ha?”

  She laughed. “You’ve always been oblivious. That’s kind of cute. I don’t think William wants oblivious. I think you need to make the first move.” With that, she reapplied her lipstick and walked off.

  I ignored the quiver shaking through my stomach, tamped down my attraction for William, and quickly made it home.

  Argyle appeared with one of those floppy chef hats as soon as I sat down. He’d either bought proper silver serving gear, or he’d scrounged it from the mansion.

  He strode straight up to me and opened the shiny lid.

  He placed down one of the most intricate desserts I’d seen. There were chocolate swirls, tiny fragments of gold leaf, and a three-layered cake.

  I didn’t pause. I grabbed a spoon from the coffee table, sank against the elegant blue couch, and tucked in. My jaw soldered itself shut with a ping. There wasn’t too much sugar – just so much flavor. It wasn’t bad. It was great.

  Mirabella chuckled as she padded into the lounge room.

  The guard station was nice. Because everything at Newstead Estate was great. I still loved my house the most, but this was a cute second.

  The living room boasted beautiful windows facing the forest. You could also see the mansion and the city. The windows were arched, without a single detail or tracery, and they covered 300 percent of the circular room. This was the guardhouse, after all. I’d caught Argyle staring up at the mountains with wolf eyes multiple times.

  I didn’t know if William had decided to make him a real guard, but Argyle had taken up the position anyway.

  I leaned back against an intricate tapestry cushion, grabbed a spoonful of cake, and sank. My shoulders caved.

  Mirabella sat down beside me, dragging the coffee table close. An intricate frame with 20 lit candles sat atop, but it didn’t even shudder. The flames didn’t sway. It didn’t drop wax.

  Other candles lit the room at strategic points. And just like with the gardener’s cottage, plants spilled from the mezzanine level, top-level windows, and ancient furniture.

  Unlike my house, this was a completely open space. Behind the couch sat the kitchen. A beautiful white stone countertop and blue cupboards enshrouded a huge six-flame stove.

  When Argyle was satisfied he’d made the best dessert ever, he scurried back into the kitchen.

  Mirabella crossed her arms. “He likes making cakes for you. He thinks you need the sugar.”

  Argyle lifted a finger from behind the counter. I saw it because he aimed it high like God proclaiming a point. “She stopped eating beef. You know what that means, right? She’s gonna waste away. Sugar is tiding her over until she comes back to her senses.”

  Both Mirabella and I chuckled.

  I enjoyed the cake. A little too much. I polished it off, placed the ornate gold-leaf China down on the coffee table, and bit my lip. “What have you found?” My voice shook.

  Mirabella snorted. “So much stuff. I do nothing but sleep and work.”

  “That’s a lie. As soon as you drag your butt into the bedroom—” Argyle began.

  Mirabella straightened. “Get back to cooking. She wants another cake.”

  I laughed. Mirabella ordered Argyle around – but playfully. I wondered if I could do that to William, wondered what it would be like—

  Nope. I put the brakes on that thought so fast, I could careen down a cliff.

  Argyle could smell attraction – it didn’t matter if you had the hots for him or someone else. It was blood flow, hormones, and pheromones. And I needed to come to terms with one fact, especially after my conversation with Sally.

  I couldn’t go anywhere with William.

  Because she was right. He’d never make the first move, and I couldn’t risk activating his vampirism.

  Argyle was quick. Mirabella was quicker. She grabbed her laptop, scrolled to the right section, and placed it on my lap. “I’ve been going through everything from Jeff’s USB. It’s amazing. But I don’t have the cure.” She sighed. Not as loudly as I did on the inside.

  After I’d found that sticky note in Jeff’s secret office, promising he had a cure, I thought the USB would deliver it.

  I’d gotten it wrong. I should’ve scrounged through his office before Luigi got there.

  I’d never get that chance again.

  “No cure. Great. We are back at square one.”

  She shook her head as Argyle handed me another dessert with a different coulis.

  I grabbed the opera cake like a wolf to a carcass and rammed it into my mouth.

  Argyle wasn’t offended, not at all. “It’s cleaner if you do it on the floor. Then you just have to sweep.”

  Mirabella shooed him away with a sweep of her hand. “I’m so much closer to the cure. I think I just need ingredients I don’t have. Jeff keeps referencing some kind of stone.”

  I frowned quizzically. “What kind of stone? An unknown one or something you’ve heard of?”

  “I think it’s a ring.”

  “We should find it.” I didn’t speak to them. This was a directive to myself.

  I thought of the finder’s necklace. If I could learn more about this ring, surely the necklace could help me find it?

  William was so cagey about the necklace, though. He didn’t want it to come out of the vault. If it did, he was paranoid the White Knights would get it. And look, they probably would. But that ring was the key to finding C9R Omega’s cure. We needed that more, didn’t we?

  Argyle sat down on the opposite couch, his giant body sinking into the blue leather with a scrunch. He crossed his arms and glared at me.

  I licked my fingers. “What? I polished off two plates. It was delicious.” I didn’t lie.

  “It’s your look, Lillian. It’s your primary character fault.”

  I pouted. “Sorry?” I slapped my cheeks. For obvious reasons, I was a little sore about my appearance. I was no vampire model.

  I had crazy hair, and if I smiled, you could say I was just OK.

  Did an ancestral vampire need OK? Or stunning? Or impossibly beautiful and seductive—

  Mirabella crossed her arms. “Want to explain that comment, honey?”

  “You’re thinking about going off alone again, Lillian, aren’t you?” Argyle leaned back and shot me a thousand-mile stare that could freeze fire.

  I clenched my teeth. Way to go for hiding the obvious.

  He laughed hard. “See, you are. It’s so damn clear.” He released his cast-iron grip on his middle and locked one hard elbow on his knee. “And stupid.” He glowered at me like someone delivering a message with a knife through your eye. “Come on, kid. You keep making the same mistake.”

  I winced. Mirabella didn’t jump down his throat. She watched me.

  Everyone who had anything to do with me soon found out I ran off on my own constantly. I didn’t want to. No… I did. That was the problem.

  I just disappeared into the spirit realm when I thought I could do something better alone. When William bit my throat off for jumping into the spirit realm at the jail, it irritated me. He hadn’t waited for my explanation. And when I’d given it, I’d had to beg him to believe it.

  … Maybe that was because it confirmed everything he knew about me.

  I didn’t make eye contact with either of them. I looked at my plate, wondering if a morsel of cream was left.

  It wasn’t. I’d practically licked the thing.

  I plucked at my cuticles. “I do what’s necessary, OK?” I finally filled the silence and rose to my defense. “I have a unique connection to the spirit realm. And if I hadn’t gone there so often, we—” I stopped abruptly before I pointed out we’d all be dead. I didn’t want to raise the specter of Mirabella’s trauma. Not in front of her mate.

  I rolled my thumbs around one another. I looked at the windows, down at my knees, and over to the laptop.

  No matter what they said, I knew they were wrong. You see, it wasn’t that easy. Not only did I have a unique connection to the spirit realm – I had unique enemies.

  If I hadn’t run into the spirit realm alone, I would never have defeated Bella – or Luigi, or any of my enemies.

  Now they wanted me to stop and seek company or permission every time I had to act? It would simply be too slow. And we didn’t need slow. I’d hidden the truth back with Sally. Now it flooded me with pictures of gore and dark magic.

  She wanted to know what would happen next. I knew. I’d dreamed of the apocalypse waiting when magic left the world.

  Fairbridge would crumble. People would join marauding gangs searching for scraps of food or guns. And Bella… she’d take William.

  And I… I’d lose.

  I could wait around, twiddling my thumbs, seeking permission. Or I could go out there and do what I needed to.

  The laptop still sat on my knee. I glanced at it and finally saw the line mentioning the ring.

  I scrolled down on the touch screen and reached a picture.

  Immediately my intuition slapped me, promising it was one of those jewels. Just like the finder’s necklace and the other two pieces I’d stolen for William.

  Get to it, and I’d get a cure. Get to it, and my nightmare would never occur.

  Mirabella snatched the laptop off me. She frowned. Argyle was one thing – Mirabella was worse. “You’ve gotta listen to him, Lillian. You can’t go off on your own—”

  I lurched up. I didn’t want to have this conversation. Sally had rattled me. I kept thinking of how she looked at me and asked what was coming next.

  I couldn’t answer. Worse, I couldn’t stop thinking about William.

  Before I got a single step, someone knocked on the door.

  Argyle lurched up as the estate’s self-appointed guard and ran over. He opened the door. William stood there, arms crossed, gaze on the porch. Then he looked right past Argyle at me.

  Everything crumbled. My anger, all my irritation, all my pain.

  I got trapped in that gaze, not because I couldn’t get away from him – because I didn’t want to.

  I was the hand locking me against his side.

  “We need to go. Something’s happened,” he said.

  I walked straight up to him. I stepped close, tilted my head competently, and asked, “What?”

  William grabbed his jaw. He uncharacteristically held on. He wasn’t scratching, just touching it to give his fingers something to do. “The mayor. Someone gave him C9R, and he only just survived. He’s in ICU.”

  Mirabella gasped. Argyle swore.

  I winced and thought of one connection.

  Jeff – the scientists who’d done most to find C9R Omega’s cure – had a sister. Patricia. She was no longer in Fairbridge. Her other brother had sold all her assets and forced her to move. I’d followed up on it – she didn’t want to talk to me.

  But Patricia’s cousin was the mayor. Patricia had pushed Talent Labs after Jeff’s disappearance. They hadn’t touched her – or disposed of her – because of the mayor.

  Now he was down.

  “I need you to find someone and put them under witness protection,” I snapped proficiently at William as I took the lead.

  “Give me the details on the way.” William grabbed his jacket, tugged it closed, and glanced at the grim sky. I was right, ha? Thick snow clouds clogged the horizon, looming like a hand creeping toward my throat.

  Already stressed at what it might bring, I grabbed the back of my head and ran my nails down my scalp.

  I snatched my coat off the hook by the door and ran out beside William.

  The mayor couldn’t save himself.

  Somewhere deep in the pit of my stomach, fear rose and pointed out no one could save him now. Or the rest of the city. I was too late, like usual.

  Chapter 4

  I was surprised William didn’t take me to the largest central hospital. I knew it well. They’d dealt with me multiple times after my numerous injuries. The worst one, the one that really stuck in my head like someone spiking my cerebellum, was the time I’d taken C9R. Alone out of every Enforcement Officer, I could appreciate precisely what the mayor was going through. Except I’d never been taken somewhere so fancy. Was that the right word?

 

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